Standing Committee on Official Languages

Comité permanent des langues officielles

For immediate release

Ottawa, June 18, 2018 -

Today, the Honourable Denis Paradis, Chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages, presented a report entitled Media in the Digital Age: Reconciling Federal Responsibilities to Official Language Minority Communities with New Trends.

In this report, the Committee makes six recommendations. First, the Committee calls for the funding allocated to official language minority community (OLMC) media under the Action Plan for Official Languages – 2018–2023: Investing in Our Future to be available in the first year of the plan, and for the support programs to be implemented as soon as possible.

Second, the Committee recommends that the government immediately set aside a $2 million special emergency fund and allocate it to national advertising contracts for OLMC media as soon as possible.

Recommendations 3 and 4 are aimed at correcting structural problems. The Committee would like to see the Policy on Communications and Federal Identity strengthened. In their communications with the public, federal institutions must consider “the needs of official language minority communities in Canada.” The Committee proposes that the Policy explicitly state that these institutions are expected to meet “the objectives of the Official Languages Act, as set out in sections 11 and 30 and subsections 41(1) and 41(2) of the Act.” These provisions concern notices, advertisements and other matters that are published (Part II: Legislative and Other Instruments), the manner of communicating (Part IV: Communications with and Services to the public), and enhancing the vitality of OLMCs and promoting English and French (Part VII: Advancement of English and French). Then, the Committee recommends requiring the government to purchase advertising in traditional and digital OLMC media as part of national advertising campaigns.

The fifth recommendation relates to the Canada Periodical Fund. The Committee recommends that Canadian Heritage add a specific component to the Fund for publications that serve OLMCs so that it better addresses their situations and financial challenges.

The sixth and final recommendation urges the Government of Canada to introduce payroll tax incentives for OLMC media for staff such as journalists, graphic designers and freelancers.

The report can be consulted on the Committee’s webpage on the Parliament of Canada website at http://www.parl.gc.ca/LANG-e. Anyone unable to access an electronic copy of the report can obtain a paper copy by contacting the Committee clerk.

The House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages is composed of 11 MPs. The Chair is the Honourable Denis Paradis (Brome—Missisquoi) and the Vice-chairs are Alupa Clarke (Beauport—Limoilou) and François Choquette (Drummond). The other members are René Arseneault (Madawaska—Restigouche), Sylvie Boucher (Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix), Sean Casey (Charlottetown), Bernard Généreux (Montmagny—L’Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup), Linda Lapointe (Rivière-des-Mille-Îles), Paul Lefebvre (Sudbury), Darrell Samson (Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook) and Dan Vandal (Saint-Boniface—Saint-Vital).